


Rise

by bluepulsebluepulse



Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), DCU (Comics), Impulse (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bakery, Bakery AU, Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes - Freeform, Bluepulse, Fluff, M/M, Speedbuggy, YJBingo, can't remember what happens, idek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27912712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluepulsebluepulse/pseuds/bluepulsebluepulse
Summary: Young Justice Bingo 2020 Collection - bluepulsebluepulse - BakeryHard-working Jaime discovers a new bakery near his work on a lunch break. A new tradition is born, and Jaime visits the store on a daily basis; but is it really the food that keeps him coming back?
Relationships: Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26
Collections: Young Justice Bingo 2020





	Rise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PaintingWithDarkness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintingWithDarkness/gifts).



> Okay so some background information. I wrote this in 2019. So a longgg time ago. I apologize if it's bad (I can't actually remember what happens in it). There's less than a month for me to post the last 4 (now 3) of my YJBingo fics (it's an event I signed up for in 2019 and I also finished writing all the fics for it in - you guessed it - 2019). I'm posting these fics hilariously late, but it is what it is. Hope y'all enjoy.

Jaime smiled softly as the pleasant chime of a bell tingled above his head. The smell of freshly baked pastries wafted through the door. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as he felt the delicious smell dance around inside the space in his lungs. Jaime pressed onward and continued into the store and looked around. It had a very welcoming vibe.

The menu boards had been all drawn on blackboards with white chalk. The font was quite fancy and was accompanied by flouncy swirls that filled in the spaces of darkness on the board. Most of the furniture including the tables and chairs were made of a light tortilla-brown wood that was easy on the eyes. The wooden floorboards were a slightly darker brown, reminiscent of the trunk of a tree. Golden lights hung down from the ceiling intermittently placed between orderly rows of fake vines hanging on the ceiling.

Jaime walked up to the counter and was pleasantly surprised not to have to wait in a line, however there was nobody behind the counter. Out the corner of his eye, he spotted a silver bell on the counter with a sign asking patrons to ring it for service. Jaime always felt like it made him appear impatient when pressing it, but did it nonetheless.

Suddenly from behind the counter, the cashier jumped upwards enthusiastically.

Jaime had  _ not  _ been expecting the jump scare. He stumbled back and cussed in Spanish as he clutched at his chest.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry!” The cashier - whose name tag read ‘Bart’ - exclaimed.

Jaime stared at him in pure awe, the extremely handsome man not doing a thing to help calm down his beating heart.

“I am so so sorry! I didn’t mean to frighten you! Sir, are you alright?” Bart asked, leaning over the counter slightly. After moments of silence, Bart began to ponder whether he would need to jump over the bulky bench to help snap the customer back to reality.

“Si... I- I’m fine.” Jaime chuckled softly as he lowered his hand from his chest, “I just... was not expecting that.”

“Again, I’m so sorry sir!” Bart chuckled in relief now that the patron was laughing with him; that could only mean he had taken the whole incident in good stead.

“There’s no need to call me sir,” he berated in his friendliest tone, “Call me Jaime.”

“Well… Jaime.” Bart tested out the word. “What can I get for you today?” For some reason a nervous chuckle spilled out of him.

“Umm… I hadn’t really thought that far ahead… Anything you’d recommend?” The patron asked with a trusting smile.

“Hmm… We have pretty crash meat pies?” Bart smiled as he slowly brushed a lock of his beautiful light-brown hair out of his eyes before tucking it behind his ear, only for it to fall back down. Had Jaime not been mesmerized by the move, he would have been questioning the use of the word ‘crash’ in that sentence.

Jaime’s smile turned into a smirk. It was clear that the wisp of hair was annoying Bart, but he was putting on a brave face to remain professional in front of Jaime.

“Buen. I’ll have that then!” Jaime quickly reached into his pocket and fiddled around before pulling out his black, leather wallet.

“Oh no! Don’t worry about it. It’s on the house. Besides it’s the least I can do after nearly giving you a heart attack.” Bart chuckled.

“Oh. Are you sure?” Jaime felt consumed by guilt. He was slightly concerned that Bart might get into trouble for giving him food for free.

“Positive.” Bart chuckled again. “Take a seat. I’ll bring it out when it’s ready.”

Jaime nodded and observed the remaining seats and chose one by the window. The sun was out and he wanted to absorb whatever residual heat he could through the glass. After taking a seat, he looked over to watch Bart as he grabbed a plate and reached for the tongs to grab Jaime’s pie in the window. He was gorgeous in this light; or any light Jaime suspected. 

There was nothing that could make Jaime take his eyes off of Bart. He watched innocently as Bart walked all the way from behind the counter to his table. The Caucasian chuckled as he approached the customer.

“You must be really hungry!” Bart placed the plate down gently on the table to avoid making a loud clink.

“Que?” Jaime laughed with confusion, he wasn’t actually all that hungry.

“You were watching me the whole time as I brought out your food.” Bart smiled sweetly.

“Oh, ya veo. Si...” Jaime wondered how Bart would have felt knowing the real reason why he was actually staring at him.

Bart seemed to want to linger at Jaime’s table but noticed a customer waiting in line at the counter, and left to tend to them. Jaime chalked it up to his imagination.

The Latino mindlessly ate his meat pie as he watched Bart through adoring eyes. Everything he did was captivating: the way Bart smiled when he greeted new customers, the way that same strand of hair kept falling into his eyes. 

Jaime felt a warmth in his chest as he continued to watch the very same strand of Bart’s fringe keep falling into his eyes, despite his best efforts to stick it literally anywhere else.

A blob of gravy ran down Jaime’s bottom lip as he took that last bite where the mass of meat always got stuck in the pastry. He was quick to bring a napkin to his face to clean up the embarrassing mess. He absolutely could not risk letting Bart see him with gravy on his face.

The next thing Jaime knew, Bart was striding over to his table.

“What did you think?” Bart smiled as he leaned against the empty chair at Jaime’s two person table.

“It was really nice!” Jaime emphasized the word ‘really’ strongly. It had actually been very adequate, nothing special at all; but Jaime hadn’t wanted to hurt Bart’s feelings in case he had been the one to bake the pies.

“Glad to hear it! Is there anything else I can get for you Jaime?”

“Uh…” he shook his head, “Lo siento, but I should probably get back to work.” He glanced down at his silver watch and saw that he had dawdled eating his lunch to the point where he had sealed his fate; he was going to be late. His boss Kaldur would likely yell at him for taking too long of a break during their busiest time of year. He sighed as quietly as he could.

“No worries!” Bart smiled to show there were no hard feelings. “Sorry again for startling you earlier! I hope you don’t have anymore jump scares today.”

“That’s okay.” Jaime chuckled, “And yeah hopefully not.”

Jaime stood up and began quickly using his napkin to brush all the crumbs he had left behind on the table onto his plate.

“Oh! You don’t have to do that!” Bart gestured his hands outwardly to stop the kind man.

“No it’s okay. I made the mess, I should clean it up.” Jaime insisted.

“Thanks Jaime.” Bart looked really relieved to not have to clean up yet another person’s mess (even though it was his job). Bart placed a hand on Jaime’s muscly shoulder and leaned in close to whisper lightheartedly, “You’re officially my favorite customer.”

Jaime chuckled and unbeknownst to him, his cheeks were competing with the shade of red in the jam donuts up front. Bart winked before walking off to attend to the front counter again waving to Jaime as he left through the front door.

As expected, Kaldur went off at him like a police siren for having been late, but Jaime couldn’t really hear any of it. He was too busy smiling a dopey smile that infuriated Kaldur even more. Eventually, Jaime was released from Kaldur’s office when the boss had officially given up on trying to make Jaime feel guilty about his behavior, because it was simply not going to happen. 

X

“Hey Jaime!” Bart exclaimed happily, as he absentmindedly wiped down a table covered in crumbs. He had spotted his favorite customer walk through the door at approximately the same time of day  _ yet again _ , “This is the fifth day in a row you’ve come in here!”

“Yeah...” Jaime chuckled nervously.

Bart immediately noticed something different about Jaime’s posture and tone. He stopped cleaning and walked behind the counter squeezing past Wally at the coffee machine as he did so. 

Wally was his fellow co-worker, who was a bit taller and sported fiery red hair. He was also a rather friendly guy that got along with Bart quite well. Wally did however have a tendency to flirt with the female customers, which made Bart wonder just how much of their profits were attributed to that.

“What’s up Jaime?” Bart asked, as he leaned on the counter like a barman in a pub.

“Nothing?” Jaime dismissed, trying to pass it off as amusing that Bart would even think to ask such a question in the first place.

“Nuh-uh. I’m not buying it.” Bart pointed a finger at him with a dangerous grin, “I-”

Someone suddenly called out Bart’s name from the back of the store, causing the baker to snap his head in the shout’s general direction.

“Sorry Jaime, that’s my manager. Be right back!” Bart rolled his eyes at the poor timing and hurried off to attend to Barry’s beckon.

Wally stepped into Bart’s place at the counter. Jaime was tempted to tell Wally that he’d rather wait to be served by Bart, but ultimately decided against it given how petty that would have sounded.

“What can I get you?” Wally asked with a friendly smile.

Jaime hesitated. It felt wrong to ask for a meat pie from Wally. That honor was reserved for Bart and Bart only. He had to quickly think of something else to order.

“Just a bottle of water please.” It was probably for the best, he was too nervous to eat anyway.

“No worries.” Wally turned around and opened the drinks fridge directly behind him. He turned back with the drink, scanned it and put it through the till. Jaime thanked the man before grabbing his water bottle and walking over to his regular table. He had sat there everyday during the week, so in his mind, it was his table.

Jaime unscrewed the bottle top feeling the lined grain of the lid on his fingertips as he twisted it. He stared down at the water through the bottleneck for a minute before taking a sip of it. He was reconsidering the plan he wanted to dive into without agonizing on it any longer.

When he did finally take the first sip, he found that the water was quite cold, unsurprisingly. He screwed the lid back on and leaned back in his chair. It was then Bart came striding out between the portal to the kitchen, before stopping to scan the cafe for Jaime. 

The waiter hurried over to the man’s regular table and pulled out the chair directly opposite him to take a seat. Jaime immediately straightened up out of his slouch and pulled his legs back in so that Bart’s legs had some room under the tiny table.

“So Jaime... What’s bothering my favorite customer?” Bart asked, leaning his chin on one hand and smiling like an angel.

“Oh... I just- can’t decide on whether I should do something or not?” Jaime answered cryptically, as he rotated the water bottle nervously between his palms.

“You’re not changing bakeries are you?” Bart joked placing a hand dramatically on his chest.

Jaime laughed but looked down at the table as he sat in silence.

“Oh. You are?” Bart was uncertain but took the silence to be a likely indicator of a ‘yes’, “I mean, I thought you liked our food?” Bart was still smiling but sounded a bit hurt. He genuinely wanted to take the time to find out why his favorite customer was leaving, he was always open to improvements.

“I don’t come here for the food…” Jaime shifted in his chair nervously.

“You come here for the friendly staff?” Bart joked, keeping the conversation consistently lighthearted. He didn’t see any need for this exchange to become awkward.

“Si. One in particular. I umm…” Jaime paused and quickly unscrewed the lid of the water bottle and took a swig of it like it was alcohol that would somehow give him confidence to say what he wanted to say next. He looked Bart directly in the eyes and could see nothing but openness. He panicked and looked away, that was the only way he could finish his sentence. By complete coincide, Jaime glanced in the general direction of Wally as he said it.

“I wanted to ask him out.”

“Oh.” Bart seemed taken aback. “I can let Wally know you’re interested.” Bart was strangely quick to stand from his chair.

“No! Wait!” Jaime shrieked uncharacteristically, as he reached out and grabbed Bart’s hand. This time he won the competition against the jam donuts, his cheeks glowing a much darker red. Jaime gently pulled Bart back down into his seat.

“What is it?” Bart asked with confusion.

Jaime swallowed, “I wanted to ask  _ you _ out.” Jaime’s eyes which had been on the water bottle flicked up to lock with Bart’s.

“Me?” Bart chuckled incredulously, and Jaime could have sworn he sensed relief in the beautiful sound.

“Si...” Jaime replied, returning the confused tone as he watched Bart crumble into soft laughter. “Why is that so funny?” He allowed the feeling of hurt to leak into his tone.

Bart was quick to amend that pain, he placed a hand on Jaime’s arm before adding, “Don’t get me wrong Jaime! I’d love to go out with you! I just can’t believe you’re asking me out...”

“Why?” He couldn’t stop smiling at the hand on his arm.

“Because you’re way out of my league!” Bart laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“No I’m not!” Jaime defended, on behalf of Bart’s honor.

“You totally are! You’re like the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever seen.”

Jaime’s blush wasn’t going away and at this rate, it seemed like it was going to remain permanent.

“I feel the same way about you.” Jaime admitted.

“You must not know a lot of people then.” Bart laughed.

“Actually, I’m a dentist. I have met most of the people in this city at least once.” Jaime pointed out, in a proving-you-wrong tone.

“Well, thank you Jaime. That’s very sweet of you.” As Bart ducked his head to avoid sharing the beginning of his own blush, that same strand of hair fell in front of his eyes again. As Bart went to reach for it, he felt a hand grabbing his arm to stop him.

“Allow me.” Jaime grinned as he reached up with his own hand and delicately brushed the hair over Bart’s ear. Jaime was driven wild by the soft feeling of Bart’s soft hair. It caused Bart’s cheeks to go even redder.

Much to Bart’s amazement, the strand of hair stayed in place.

“Oh my god... How did you do that?” Bart questioned with utter disbelief.

“I guess I have the magic touch.” Jaime chuckled.

Bart smirked, “So tell Mr Magic Touch Jaime, when are we going on this date of ours?”

“Whenever you want.”

“How about in 5 minutes when my shift ends?” A grin wasn’t far behind.

“Perfecto.”

“Crash! Well I’ll see you in 5 minutes!” Bart stood up from his chair and gave Jaime the surprise of a lifetime. He walked over and gave Jaime a hug before leaving a quick kiss on his cheek.

Bart backed away from Jaime gunning him down with a grin before joking, “Don’t go anywhere.”

“I won’t.” Jaime was certain he was wearing the dorkiest smile in the history of dorky smiles.

Bart hurried back behind the counter to take care of the line that had begun growing. Between each of the customers he served, Bart would wink or blow kisses at Jaime. Each antic of Bart’s caused Jaime to chuckle at his table. When Bart finished the remainder of his shift, he jogged back up to Jaime happily, took a hold of his hand and led him right out the door. Jaime was going to be very late getting back to work today, but he didn’t care; Bart was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment! Or don't... If it's bad (like I said I don't remember what happens HAHAHA). XD


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